Audit Phase: V-MIL Forensic Domain Audit
Target Entity: Costa Coffee (Costa Limited), a wholly owned subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) since 2019
Franchise Ecosystem in Scope: Central Bottling Company (CBC) / Coca-Cola Israel and its subsidiaries, including Tara Dairy and Tabor Winery, as the Israeli TCCC franchise anchor
Date: 2026-05-01
Evidence Base: Research memo dated 2026-05-01 (training-data review; live web search unavailable)
Methodological Note: All factual findings in this audit derive exclusively from the research memo above. No independent research has been performed. Where the memo records a claim as “Unverified,” “Partially Verified,” or “Contradicted,” that characterisation is reproduced here. No claim has been strengthened beyond the memo’s own confidence rating. Evidence gaps are explicitly preserved.
Costa Coffee (Costa Limited) — Direct Contracts
No public evidence has been identified of any contract, tender award, framework agreement, or memorandum of understanding between Costa Coffee (Costa Limited) and any Israeli or UK/NATO defence procurement body, including the Israeli Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), Israel Prison Service, or Israel Border Police.12 This finding is consistent across all source classes reviewed in the research memo, including procurement databases, news archives, NGO reports, and corporate filings.
Central Bottling Company (CBC) / Tara Dairy — “Authorized Supplier to MoD” Claim
The prior AI (Gemini) report asserted that Tara Dairy (CBC subsidiary) holds an “Authorized Supplier” designation with the Israeli Ministry of Defence. This claim is not independently verified in any primary procurement document available in the evidence base. The source cited in the prior report was the Strauss Group Q4 2021 Annual Report20 — a document concerning a competitor dairy company (Strauss), not Tara Dairy or CBC — making the citation misdirected. A 2013 USDA Foreign Agricultural Service HRI market report confirms that Israel’s institutional food market, including the IDF, is routinely serviced by the country’s large-scale dairy processors as a structural feature of the sector22, and CBC/Tara’s scale and market position (approximately two-thirds of the Israeli soft drink and significant dairy market share)3 makes institutional supply structurally plausible. However, no primary procurement document — tender award, framework agreement number, or official IDF supplier registry entry — naming Tara Dairy as a contracted MoD supplier has been identified. The claim is plausible as a structural inference but cannot be affirmed as a verified finding on available evidence.
SIBAT / Defence Export Directory Listings
No public evidence identified that Costa Coffee, CBC, or any CBC subsidiary appears in SIBAT listings, Israeli defence export directories, or international defence exhibition catalogues. Not asserted in the prior report.
Press Releases & Official Announcements
No public evidence identified of any corporate press release or government announcement documenting defence cooperation between Costa Coffee, TCCC, CBC, or any CBC affiliate and Israeli or other defence procurement entities.
Militarised or Dual-Use Product Lines
No public evidence identified that Costa Coffee manufactures or markets ruggedised, tactical, military-specification, or dual-use variants of any product line — including coffee, capsules, ready-to-drink beverages, or vending equipment.12 Costa’s entire product range is civilian-facing. This finding is not contested in any source reviewed in the research memo.
Costa Express Vending Equipment
Costa Express vending machines, deployed globally under TCCC’s ownership, are standard commercial vending units with no identified military-specification equivalent, no documented deployment to IDF installations, and no evidence of purpose-built security-sector variants.2 No deployment announcements, TCCC investor materials, or IDF base-service contract notices referencing Costa Express have been identified.
Export Licensing & End-User Certification
No public evidence identified of export licence applications, end-user certificates, or government export control reviews relating to Costa Coffee’s products in connection with Israeli defence or security end-users. Costa Coffee’s products do not fall under standard export control classification regimes (UK Military List, EU Dual-Use Regulation Annex I, ECCN categories) in any configuration identified in available evidence.
Structural Applicability
Costa Coffee is a coffee retail and vending company. It does not manufacture, own, or deploy heavy construction or earthmoving machinery, and no evidence positions it as a supplier of such equipment to Israeli settlement construction, the separation barrier, or military installations. This section is therefore largely inapplicable to Costa’s core business model; findings below address the infrastructure footprint of CBC as the Israeli TCCC franchise holder.
Atarot Industrial Zone — CBC Distribution Facility
The most substantive infrastructure-adjacent finding in the evidence base concerns CBC’s distribution and logistics operations in the Atarot Industrial Zone in occupied East Jerusalem.
The Atarot Industrial Zone’s legal status is verified at high confidence: Atarot is located in the northern part of East Jerusalem on land formally annexed by Israel following the 1967 war but consistently classified as occupied territory under international law, including by the International Court of Justice and relevant UN documentation.2 The zone sits adjacent to the Qalandia checkpoint and the separation barrier.
CBC’s operational presence in or associated with Atarot is partially verified at medium confidence: the Who Profits Research Centre database4 and multiple BDS-affiliated campaign materials101118 consistently document CBC/Coca-Cola Israel as maintaining a logistics and distribution presence in the Atarot zone, characterised as serving Jerusalem consumers and West Bank settlement distribution. However, specific facility dimensions, lease terms, and precise operational scope have not been confirmed in a primary corporate filing or Israeli land registry document available in the evidence base.
Connection to Costa Coffee: This link is inferential. If CBC distributes Costa Coffee products in Israel — structurally implied by TCCC’s global franchise model1 but not confirmed in a specific, publicly available signed distribution agreement — and if CBC’s Jerusalem/West Bank supply transits the Atarot facility, then Costa Coffee products would be distributed through occupied-territory infrastructure. The prior report presents this inference as established fact; the evidence supports it as a plausible inferential chain, not a directly evidenced supply relationship specific to Costa Coffee.
Meshek Zuriel Dairy / Shadmot Mehola (Jordan Valley)
The Who Profits “Land of Milk and Money” report4 documents that Tara Dairy (CBC subsidiary) holds approximately 81% of Meshek Zuriel Dairy, which operates a livestock and dairy farming facility in Shadmot Mehola — a settlement located in the northern Jordan Valley, Area C, under full Israeli military and civil control. Shadmot Mehola is a recognised Israeli settlement under international law. This finding is partially verified at medium confidence: the corporate relationship and settlement location are consistent with Who Profits documentation, but no Israeli corporate registry filing confirming the equity stake figure has been independently identified in the evidence base. The figure (81%) is sourced from the NGO report and should be treated accordingly.
No Construction or Demolition Contracts
No public evidence identified of any contract or role by Costa Coffee, TCCC, or CBC in the construction, maintenance, or expansion of checkpoints, detention facilities, the separation barrier, or military bases.
Component Supply to Israeli Defence Manufacturers
No public evidence identified of any supply relationship between Costa Coffee, TCCC, or CBC and Israeli defence prime contractors — including Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, or IMI Systems (now integrated into Elbit). Costa Coffee’s supply chain — coffee beans, dairy ingredients, packaging materials, flavourings, and commercial vending equipment — does not intersect with any documented Israeli defence prime supply chain in available evidence.
Joint Development & Co-Production
No public evidence identified of joint research, co-development programmes, or co-production arrangements between Costa Coffee, TCCC, CBC, or any CBC subsidiary and an Israeli or other defence prime contractor. Source classes reviewed include Israeli patent registry references, defence industry trade press, and Elbit/IAI/Rafael annual reports available in training data.
Dual-Tier Civilian-Military Supply
No evidence of products flowing from Costa Coffee’s supply chain into a defence prime’s manufacturing or sustainment pipeline in any jurisdiction.
Costa Coffee — Direct Base Service Contracts
No public evidence identified of any catering, vending, transport, facilities management, or other service contract between Costa Coffee or Costa Express and IDF bases, military training facilities, Shin Bet installations, Border Police stations, or detention centres. This gap is confirmed across all source classes reviewed in the research memo.
CBC — Shekem (IDF Canteen Network) and Institutional Beverage Supply
CBC holds approximately two-thirds of the Israeli carbonated soft drink market and distributes the Neviot water and Prigat juice brands across Israel’s institutional sector.3 The IDF’s Shekem canteen network stocks major Israeli consumer brands as a matter of standard institutional procurement. CBC’s beverages (Coca-Cola, Neviot, Prigat) are therefore structurally likely to be present in IDF canteen supply. This is, however, a market-structure inference, not a verified named contract. No framework agreement number, tender award, or IDF procurement record naming CBC as a contracted Shekem supplier has been identified in available evidence. The prior report presents this as an established supply relationship; the evidence supports it as a reasonable structural inference only.
CBC / Im Tirtzu — “Military Care Packages” Claim
The prior Gemini report contained a claim that CBC funded Im Tirtzu to coordinate care packages to front-line IDF units. This claim is not supported by available evidence and rests on a conflation of distinct facts. What is verified is that CBC donated NIS 50,000 to Im Tirtzu in 2015, as confirmed by Israeli non-profit registry filings reported in The New Arab5 and i24NEWS6 in May 2017. Im Tirtzu is a right-wing political advocacy organisation whose activities include opposing human rights monitoring of the IDF and promoting nationalist campaigns7; it is not a logistics operator and no evidence of a military care-package coordination role has been identified. The “care packages” characterisation from the prior report is discarded as unsupported.
Geographic Footprint of Base-Adjacent Operations
No verified evidence of service contracts geographically located in the West Bank, Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, or specific Negev military zones for Costa Coffee or CBC’s beverage or vending services.
Shipping, Freight & Port Services
No public evidence identified of any role by Costa Coffee or CBC in Israeli defence logistics, military cargo, or arms shipments.
Lethal Systems Manufacturing
No public evidence identified. Costa Coffee is a food and beverage retail company with no manufacturing role, ownership interest, or identified supply relationship in any lethal platform category — conventional munitions, guided weapons, UAVs, naval systems, or strategic platforms. This section is structurally inapplicable to Costa Coffee’s business model and was not asserted in the prior report.
Munitions & Precursor Materials
No public evidence identified of any relationship between Costa Coffee, TCCC, CBC, or their subsidiaries and the manufacture, supply, or transport of munitions or controlled precursor chemicals.
Sub-System & Critical Component Supply
No public evidence identified. Source classes reviewed include the SIPRI arms transfer database (training data), Israeli MoD procurement notices, Elbit/IAI/Rafael supplier disclosure references, and DSCA filings available in training data.
IDF Intelligence Campus (Kiryat HaModi’in / Negev) — Sustainment Claim
The prior report referenced CBC as a potential sustainment contractor for a new IDF Intelligence Corps campus in the Negev, construction of which was awarded to Shikun & Binui in 2018.1516 No sustainment, catering, vending, or beverage supply contract for this campus linking to CBC or Costa Coffee has been identified. The prior report itself acknowledged this was unconfirmed speculation. Shikun & Binui’s construction contract is verified in Israeli press;1516 any downstream Costa/CBC service role at the resulting facility is not evidenced.
UK Export Licence Decisions
No public evidence identified of any UK Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU) licence decision — grant, denial, suspension, or revocation — relating to Costa Coffee’s products destined for Israeli military or security end-users. This is structurally expected: Costa Coffee’s products do not fall within controlled goods categories under the UK Export Control Order 2008 or the UK Military List.
EU and Other Jurisdiction Export Controls
No public evidence identified of export control enforcement action, licensing requirement, or controlled-goods classification applied to Costa Coffee or CBC products in any reviewed jurisdiction.
CBC Antitrust Fine (Israel, 2019)
The Israel Competition Authority fined CBC NIS 62.7 million in 2019 for abuse of dominant market position — specifically, tying Coca-Cola discount terms to the bundled purchase of Tara Dairy products.3 This is a verified commercial regulatory matter at high confidence, well-documented in Globes English and consistent with training data. While not a defence or export control matter, it is relevant to the corporate conduct profile of CBC and to the concentration of commercial and institutional market power in a single entity within the TCCC Israeli franchise.
Legal Challenges & Judicial Review
No public evidence identified of court proceedings, judicial review applications, or international tribunal filings specifically targeting Costa Coffee’s supply chain relationship with Israeli security bodies. Source classes reviewed include UK courts (BAILII database references), Israeli court records referenced in NGO reports, and ICC documentation in training data.
CBC / Im Tirtzu Donation — Registry Disclosure
The disclosure of CBC’s 2015 NIS 50,000 donation to Im Tirtzu56 resulted from the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profit Organisations rejecting Im Tirtzu’s confidentiality request — a regulatory outcome, not a penalty. This is a pre-2020 matter56 and no evidence of subsequent donations or an ongoing financial relationship between CBC and Im Tirtzu has been identified.
Who Profits Research Centre
Who Profits, the Israeli NGO tracking corporate involvement in the occupation economy, profiles CBC and its subsidiaries — including Tara Dairy and the Atarot distribution presence — in its corporate database and in the 2018 “Land of Milk and Money” report.4 The primary subject of Who Profits’ CBC profiling is CBC/Coca-Cola Israel as a distinct entity; Costa Coffee is implicated by virtue of the TCCC corporate ownership chain1 rather than as a separately profiled entity in these materials. The “Land of Milk and Money” report documents CBC/Tara’s role in the occupied-territory dairy economy, including the Meshek Zuriel / Shadmot Mehola relationship and the Atarot logistics presence.4
Tabor Winery — Occupied Territory Sourcing
CBC, through Israel Brewery & Beverages Ltd (IBBL), operates Tabor Winery. Who Profits profiles Tabor Winery as an entity sourcing grapes from the Golan Heights and reportedly the West Bank.4 Tabor Winery’s existence as part of the CBC group is documented; Golan Heights sourcing is consistent with known Israeli winery practices in the sector. West Bank vineyard sourcing in Area C is referenced in Who Profits materials but has not been confirmed in a primary Israeli agricultural or regulatory filing in available evidence. This finding is partially verified at medium confidence.
BDS Movement — Coca-Cola / CBC Campaign
The BDS Movement maintains an active campaign targeting Coca-Cola/CBC, specifically citing CBC’s Atarot distribution centre and its settlement-linked operations as the basis for the call to boycott.10 Campaign materials frame TCCC and CBC as complicit in the occupation and extend the boycott call to TCCC subsidiaries including Costa Coffee.11 This campaign has been active since at least the post-October 2023 period and is documented at medium-high confidence in training data.1011
Palestine Solidarity Campaign — “Don’t Buy Apartheid” (2025)
The PSC’s 2025 “Don’t Buy Apartheid” campaign explicitly lists Coca-Cola on its boycott target list.1118 Some campaign materials extend this listing to Costa Coffee as a TCCC subsidiary product line.1314 The campaign was covered in The Canary in April 2025.17 This campaign represents the most recent and publicly prominent civil society targeting of TCCC/Costa Coffee in the UK context available in the evidence base.
PAX for Peace — “Don’t Buy Into Occupation” (November 2025)
PAX for Peace published a report in November 2025 titled “The Private Actors Behind the Economy of Occupation and Genocide.”21 The prior report cites this document as referencing TCCC/CBC; however, whether Costa Coffee or TCCC specifically appears in the PAX 2025 report by name cannot be confirmed from available evidence. The URL is carried in the end notes as cited in the research memo, but the specific content referencing Costa/TCCC was not verifiable from training data. This finding should be treated as unverified pending live document access.
Clover Industries Acquisition (South Africa, 2019–2022)
CBC led the Milco consortium that acquired Clover Industries — one of South Africa’s largest dairy companies — in approximately 2019–2021, with completion following regulatory approval.814 The acquisition triggered sustained labour unrest, a prolonged strike in 2021–2022, and significant civil society opposition from South African trade unions and BDS-affiliated organisations.91920 Unions cited both poor labour conditions and CBC’s settlement-linked operations as grounds for opposing the takeover.915 The controversy attracted substantial international media coverage and is documented at high confidence across South African, Israeli, and international press sources.8914151920
Ethical Consumer
Ethical Consumer maintains a boycott list and company ratings system that includes TCCC and Costa Coffee in relation to Israeli operations and broader corporate ethics concerns.1213 Their 2018 analysis of TCCC’s Costa Coffee acquisition addressed the ethical implications of TCCC’s supply chain for the Costa brand.13 Specific current rating content cannot be confirmed without live access, but the general inclusion of TCCC/Costa Coffee in Ethical Consumer’s Israel-related ratings is consistent with their published methodology and is plausible at medium confidence.
UK Student Union Boycott Activity
Multiple UK student unions passed BDS-adjacent motions targeting Costa Coffee specifically — as a TCCC subsidiary — during the 2023–2025 period. A motion at Bangor University student union calling for the boycott of Costa Coffee alongside Starbucks is cited in the research memo.2 This is consistent with the broader documented pattern of UK student union boycott activity during this period, though the specific Bangor URL could not be independently confirmed in training data and is accordingly omitted from the end notes. The general phenomenon is credible at medium confidence.
CBC / Im Tirtzu Donation — Civil Society Response
The 2015 NIS 50,000 donation by CBC to Im Tirtzu56 — disclosed through the Israeli non-profit registry — attracted civil society attention given Im Tirtzu’s documented role as a right-wing nationalist organisation that campaigns against human rights monitoring of the IDF and has been characterised by critics as promoting the political immunity of Israeli security forces from accountability.7 The prior report’s characterisation of this as “ideological financing” of IDF immunity campaigns reflects a reasonable reading of Im Tirtzu’s documented activities.7 The donation is pre-2020;56 no evidence of subsequent donations or a continuing financial relationship has been identified.
Corporate Response to Civil Society Pressure
TCCC has not, to the extent evidenced in available training data, made any public statement specifically addressing CBC’s Atarot distribution operations or announcing any intention to close or relocate the facility. TCCC’s public position has referenced its Supplier Guiding Principles without specifically addressing the settlement supply question. No contract termination, end-use monitoring commitment, or Atarot-specific closure announcement has been identified in any corporate disclosure, press release, or regulatory filing reviewed.
Institutional Divestment
No public evidence identified of a specific pension fund or sovereign wealth fund divestment decision citing Costa Coffee or CBC’s settlement-linked operations as the stated rationale, as distinct from broader TCCC ESG divestment decisions.
https://www.coca-colacompany.com/media-center/press-releases/the-coca-cola-company-to-acquire-costa ↩↩↩↩
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-coca-cola-israel-handed-nis-627m-antitrust-fine-1001182255 ↩↩↩
https://www.newarab.com/features/coca-cola-donated-thousands-dollars-extremist-zionist-group ↩↩↩↩↩
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/society/144633-170507-coca-cola-donated-to-right-wing-group-im-tirzu ↩↩↩↩↩
https://www.sajr.co.za/clover-s-african-footprint-an-elixir-for-israel-s-central-bottling/ ↩↩
https://bdsmovement.net/news/south-african-trade-unions-say-no-israeli-takeover-clover ↩↩↩
https://bdsmovement.net/news/coca-cola-quenching-israel%E2%80%99s-genocidal-soldiers%E2%80%99-thirst ↩↩↩
https://palestinecampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/Dont-buy-apartheid-A5-web.pdf ↩↩↩↩
https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalcampaigns/boycotts ↩
https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/food-drink/coca-cola-buy-costa-coffee-ps39-billion ↩↩↩
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/bds-attempts-to-derail-israeli-s-african-multi-million-dollar-deal-580236 ↩↩↩
https://www.timesofisrael.com/mega-builder-shikun-binui-gets-tender-to-build-idf-intel-complex-in-south/ ↩↩↩↩
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-shikun-binui-wins-intelligence-corps-negev-base-tender-1001335538 ↩↩
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2025/04/04/dont-buy-apartheid-campaign/ ↩
https://palestinecampaign.org/campaigns/dont-buy-apartheid/ ↩↩
https://www.sajr.co.za/israel-hatred-sours-drawn-out-clover-strike/ ↩↩
https://irr.org.za/media/palestine2019s-2018friends2019-bully-corporate-sa-2013-at-expense-of-job-creation-growth-biznews ↩↩↩
https://paxforpeace.nl/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/DontBuyIntoOccupationV2025.pdf ↩
https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/report/downloadreportbyfilename?filename=Food%20Service%20-%20Hotel%20Restaurant%20Institutional_Tel%20Aviv_Israel_1-7-2013.pdf ↩
